The proposed research program is designed to investigate molecular dynamics, transport properties and interactions in liquid crystalline polymer solutions via pulse nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and nuclear magnetic relaxation spectroscopy (NMRS), the study of the dependence of nuclear magnetic relaxation rates on the Larmor frequency. Preliminary findings with liquid crystals indicate the great potential of NMRS for elucidating short-range molecular dynamics common to most fluids and long-range collective motions of the liquid crystal supramolecular structure. The proposed study of lyotropic polypeptide liquid crystals will yield important new information on: 1) macromolecule-solvent interactions in aggregated systems, 2) the effects of supramolecular organization on solvent and polymer mobility (self-diffusion), 3) new insights into the origin of frequency dependent nuclear relaxation observed in thermotropic liquid crystals. The extension of the proposed NMR techniques to investigate the molecular dynamics of water in collagen fibers will provide a more quantitative analysis of the general problem of protein hydration.